Kanji Study

Bushu (Radical) Info: 匕 (さじのひ) – spoon

Henshall Mnemonic: people flee, turning their backs on the north

Levels: JLPT N5 | JLPT 4 (old) | Grade 2
Frequency: #153 of the 2500 most used kanji in newspapers

Common Words and/or Phrases Using this Kanji:

Click any individual kanji to view a similar information sheet for it.
Click [K] to look up the word's individual character(s) at WWWJDIC.
Click [D] to look up the word at WWWJDIC (definition is the same but other useful features exist).
Click [Jisho] to look up the word at Jisho.org.

JLPT N5 Words

• 北   [きた]
  (n) North   [K] [D] [Jisho]

JLPT N2 Words

• 北極   [ほっきょく]
  (n) North Pole   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 南北   [なんぼく]
  (n) south and north   [K] [D] [Jisho]

JLPT N1 Words

• 敗北   [はいぼく]
  (n,vs) defeat (as a verb it means 'to be defeated')   [K] [D] [Jisho]

Other Popular Words Not Classified by JLPT

• 北アイルランド   [きたアイルランド]
  Northern Ireland   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北緯   [ほくい]
  (n) north latitude   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北欧   [ほくおう]
  Northern Europe; land of the Norsemen; Scandinavia   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北海   [ほっかい]
  (n) northern sea; North Sea   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北海道   [ほっかいどう]
  northernmost of four main islands of Japan   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北海道開発庁長官   [ほっかいどうかいはつちょうちょうかん]
  Director General of Hokkaido Development Agency   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北京   [ぺきん]
  Beijing (China)   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北極圏   [ほっきょくけん]
  Arctic Circle   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北口   [きたぐち]
  (n) north entrance   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北国   [きたぐに]
  (n) northern provinces; northern countries   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北上   [ほくじょう]
  (n) going north   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北西   [ほくせい]
  (n) northwest   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北側   [きたがわ]
  (n) north side; north bank   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北端   [ほくたん]
  (n) northern extremity   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北朝鮮   [きたちょうせん]
  North Korea   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北東   [ほくとう]
  (n) northeast   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 南北問題   [なんぼくもんだい]
  North-South problem   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北部   [ほくぶ]
  (n) north; northern part   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北風   [きたかぜ]
  (n) north wind   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北方   [ほっぽう]
  (n) northern (district); northward   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 東北   [とうほく]
  (n) (1) north-east; (2) Northern most six prefectures of Honshu   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北北東   [ほくほくとう]
  (n) north-north-east; nor-nor-east   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 北陸   [ほくりく]
  (n) region west of Tokyo on Japan Sea side of Japan   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 台北   [たいぺい]
  Taipei   [K] [D] [Jisho]

Find more details for 北 at jisho.org, Yookoso! or WWWJDIC

Acknowledgments

The sofware used to generate this kanji information uses the EDICT and KANJIDIC files. These files are the property of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group at Monash University and are used in conformance with the Group's license.

NOTE: I converted the sources just mentioned years ago and have never really updated so there may be some missing or incorrect information that has been addressed in the original sources but not here.

The first Stroke Order image used on this page is courtesy of Ulrich Apel's excellent open source KanjiVG project. The second image is from the folks at the excellent Jisho Japanese-English dictionary site and it too is based on KanjiVG.

Classifying the kanji and popular vocabulary by the new JLPT levels was done by consulting Jonathan Waller‘s JLPT Resources page, renshuu, Wictionary, and Nihongo Ichiban.

The Henshall Mnemonics are the copyright of Tuttle Publishing and are the result of the hard work by Professor Henshall. See the list I used here.

If you are curious about the lexicography shown in the word definitions, visit the WWWJDIC abbreviations and codes guide and the JMdict/Edict Lexicographical details page.